Someone I follow on Google+ and whose photography always fills me with joy is Emi Nakajima. Her photographs of flowers have such a fabulous, tranquil feel to them; a dream-like quality that comes from the very shallow depth of field and gorgeously smooth background and colours. And while I don’t usually like people watermarking their own photos there’s something about the wording of her name across each image that makes you believe each picture could be a book cover. A small sample of some of her wonderfulo photos is below. If you ever need to ease off the stresses of daily life you could do a lot worse than scroll through Emi Nakajima’s...

Another photographer I’ve come to appreciate from Google+ is Miyagi prefecture-based Emi Nakajima. Despite my fondness for street and industrial photography there’s still plenty of room to love photography of flora, whether taken with a macro lens or not, and with Emi hailing from Japan you know to expect gorgeous bokeh and occasional soft focus with high key. These first two photos show how different the leaves from possibly the same tree can look depending on the quantity of them and the amount of background light that comes through. I love the deep warmth that comes from the lower picture but no more or less than the more sparsely-filled photo above which seems to carry with it a quieter feel. I’m always happy to see a bit of lens flare or light leak and this one helps to pick out the bokeh too in this much cooler photo. What’s also nice – and most likely a happy coincidence – is how the circular bokeh patterns mimic the fruits on the tree branches. This shot by Emi is actually a crop of an earlier photo she’d taken and it’s a better composition for it in my opinion. Beautiful depth of field and a nice contrast between the richness of the flower and the pale background. I’ll be honest: I didn’t know marbles grew on tree. But now that I do know that this is a lovely, almost surreal shot from the Japanese nature photographer. And to finish from Emi’s collection a fruit in a natural cage. I love the detail in this picture and the glow from the bottom of the flower that lends this an ethereal feeling. If you’re on Google+ or just interested in seeing some more gorgeous, floral photographs then check out the rest of Emi Nakajima’s...

Someone I follow on Google+ and whose photography always fills me with joy is Emi Nakajima. Her photographs of flowers have such a fabulous, tranquil feel to them; a dream-like quality that comes from the very shallow depth of field and gorgeously smooth background and colours. And while I don’t usually like people watermarking their own photos there’s something about the wording of her name across each image that makes you believe each picture could be a book cover. A small sample of some of her wonderfulo photos is below. If you ever need to ease off the stresses of daily life you could do a lot worse than scroll through Emi Nakajima’s...

Another photographer I’ve come to appreciate from Google+ is Miyagi prefecture-based Emi Nakajima. Despite my fondness for street and industrial photography there’s still plenty of room to love photography of flora, whether taken with a macro lens or not, and with Emi hailing from Japan you know to expect gorgeous bokeh and occasional soft focus with high key. These first two photos show how different the leaves from possibly the same tree can look depending on the quantity of them and the amount of background light that comes through. I love the deep warmth that comes from the lower picture but no more or less than the more sparsely-filled photo above which seems to carry with it a quieter feel. I’m always happy to see a bit of lens flare or light leak and this one helps to pick out the bokeh too in this much cooler photo. What’s also nice – and most likely a happy coincidence – is how the circular bokeh patterns mimic the fruits on the tree branches. This shot by Emi is actually a crop of an earlier photo she’d taken and it’s a better composition for it in my opinion. Beautiful depth of field and a nice contrast between the richness of the flower and the pale background. I’ll be honest: I didn’t know marbles grew on tree. But now that I do know that this is a lovely, almost surreal shot from the Japanese nature photographer. And to finish from Emi’s collection a fruit in a natural cage. I love the detail in this picture and the glow from the bottom of the flower that lends this an ethereal feeling. If you’re on Google+ or just interested in seeing some more gorgeous, floral photographs then check out the rest of Emi Nakajima’s...

Lyme Regis is a small, coastal town in Dorset, England. The town's name literally means "misspelt, small, green, citrus fruit named Regis" and it won it in a game of poker with twinned Yorkshire village Lemmin Geoff. Lyme Regis is part of the south of England's famous Jurassic Coast, an area that stretches from Exmouth to Swanage most notable for existing simultaneously in our time period and a pleasant Thursday in the early spring of 153 million years ago. Lyme Regis is popular with tourists wishing to kill dinosaurs in Earth's distant past, skin them, eat them, then sell their cleaned skeletons in the town's many fossil shops. #dorset #thecobb #sooc #justkiddingaboutitbeingsooc ﻿ Google+: View post on...

Pete won Big Brother in the UK in 2006 since when he's written books, performed as a solo artist and with bands, got married, is getting divorced, and generally done all the other sorts of things that celebrities do. In addition to all that he campaigns for Greenpeace and it's in this capacity that my colleague and I spotted him in Chichester this week. I snapped a photo at distance which was spotted and this led to the amiable chap popping over to have a chat. Following some general chit-chat Pete then proceeded to tell me in fairly graphic detail how orangutans were sometimes shaved and prostituted out to perverts. I know how to bring out the odd in people. Very disturbing, and I suggested that he not lead with that story when approaching the old dears in the street to see if they wanted to sign up with the environmental organisation. I'm pretty sure he was going to, though. Breaking the habit of a lifetime (I'm very backward at coming forwards) I then asked if I could take a picture and he happily agreed. In hindsight perhaps waiting until after he'd finished his carrot might have made for a better street portrait shot. #StreetPhotography #StreetPortrait #StreetPortraiture #BigBrother #Celebrity ﻿ Google+: View post on...

Someone who almost always gets a +1 from me whenever her photos appear on her Google+ stream and I spot them, Marie Laigneau is a prolific street photographer based in Chicago. Just recently she’s been shooting in Japan too, an area of the world I really need to get back to in order to get my street photography vibe back, and I felt compelled to showcase some of her pictures from there as well as a few older ones too. An outstanding composition and even if your eyes are drawn to the face bottom left instantly you can still spend a few seconds staring everywhere else looking at the layers in the reflections and through the glass. My greatest desire and greatest fear in one photo: night street photography and eye contact! Another one in a similar vein and this one looks like there’s a story waiting to be told from the moment after the shot. It also highlights that I really shouldn’t be so hung up on getting sharp shots myself. Where to start? There’s light, there’s shadow, there’s fabulous framing, there are great lines drawing the eyes this way and that, there’s a wonderful subject, there are great contrasts between the near-monochrome background and the vibrant colours in front. I like this shot a lot. This photo reminds me so much of film photographs from the 1970s and 1980s and that speaks warmly to my retro heart. The subject matter is excellent and there’s just something about the woman on the right facing away from the camera that stands out. Another beautifully-framed shot and a great moment of concentration captured. To finish with, another one of Marie’s black-and-white shots and the reason I like this is because it looks to me like the subject is forming some thought bubbles. It’s a great pose and a great composition. All of Marie’s photos can be found on Google+ and there’s more to see on her website http://marielaigneau.com/...

Please be aware that legislation that comes into force today – the 16th of August, 2014 – now makes the wearing of socks with sandals a capital offence in this zone (Habitat Zone F). The Public Foot Attire Beautification Act (2014) outlines the minimum punishment for any single infringement to be disembowelment, beheading, then belegging. Belegging is defined within the Act as "the removal of the limbs below the waist using a sharpened spatula and/or emery board." Lesser offences within the Act include the wearing of socks pulled up greater than an inch above the shoe height. Punishment for this particular crime are discretionary depending on the level of public horror but can include up to 25 years of hard labour in Blackpool (Punishment Zone B). Please be further aware that legislation due to soon come into force in this zone (Habitat Zone F) will also prohibit men from wearing shorts that do not reach the knee and will carry a mandatory punishment of emasculation. Thank you for your attention. Your fellow citizens appreciate your adherence to the Act.﻿ Google+: View post on...